Counting Homomorphisms to Square-Free Graphs, Modulo 2

We study the problem ⊕HomsTo<em>H</em> of counting, modulo 2, the homomorphisms from an input graph to a fixed undirected graph <em>H</em>. A characteristic feature of modular counting is that cancellations make wider classes of instances tractable than is the case for exact...

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Autores principales: Gobel, A, Goldberg, L, Richerby, D
Formato: Conference item
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Schloss Dagstuhl - LZI GmbH 2015
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author Gobel, A
Goldberg, L
Richerby, D
author_facet Gobel, A
Goldberg, L
Richerby, D
author_sort Gobel, A
collection OXFORD
description We study the problem ⊕HomsTo<em>H</em> of counting, modulo 2, the homomorphisms from an input graph to a fixed undirected graph <em>H</em>. A characteristic feature of modular counting is that cancellations make wider classes of instances tractable than is the case for exact (nonmodular) counting, so subtle dichotomy theorems can arise. We show the following dichotomy: for any <em>H</em> that contains no 4-cycles, ⊕HomsTo<em>H</em> is either in polynomial time or is ⊕P-complete. This confirms a conjecture of Faben and Jerrum that was previously only known to hold for trees and for a restricted class of treewidth-2 graphs called cactus graphs. We confirm the conjecture for a rich class of graphs including graphs of unbounded treewidth. In particular, we focus on square-free graphs, which are graphs without 4-cycles. These graphs arise frequently in combinatorics, for example in connection with the strong perfect graph theorem and in certain graph algorithms. Previous dichotomy theorems required the graph to be tree-like so that tree-like decompositions could be exploited in the proof. We prove the conjecture for a much richer class of graphs by adopting a much more general approach.
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spelling oxford-uuid:faa83d8f-b005-4e89-9cb4-2fe75a4da7412022-03-27T13:07:44ZCounting Homomorphisms to Square-Free Graphs, Modulo 2Conference itemhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794uuid:faa83d8f-b005-4e89-9cb4-2fe75a4da741EnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetSchloss Dagstuhl - LZI GmbH2015Gobel, AGoldberg, LRicherby, DWe study the problem ⊕HomsTo<em>H</em> of counting, modulo 2, the homomorphisms from an input graph to a fixed undirected graph <em>H</em>. A characteristic feature of modular counting is that cancellations make wider classes of instances tractable than is the case for exact (nonmodular) counting, so subtle dichotomy theorems can arise. We show the following dichotomy: for any <em>H</em> that contains no 4-cycles, ⊕HomsTo<em>H</em> is either in polynomial time or is ⊕P-complete. This confirms a conjecture of Faben and Jerrum that was previously only known to hold for trees and for a restricted class of treewidth-2 graphs called cactus graphs. We confirm the conjecture for a rich class of graphs including graphs of unbounded treewidth. In particular, we focus on square-free graphs, which are graphs without 4-cycles. These graphs arise frequently in combinatorics, for example in connection with the strong perfect graph theorem and in certain graph algorithms. Previous dichotomy theorems required the graph to be tree-like so that tree-like decompositions could be exploited in the proof. We prove the conjecture for a much richer class of graphs by adopting a much more general approach.
spellingShingle Gobel, A
Goldberg, L
Richerby, D
Counting Homomorphisms to Square-Free Graphs, Modulo 2
title Counting Homomorphisms to Square-Free Graphs, Modulo 2
title_full Counting Homomorphisms to Square-Free Graphs, Modulo 2
title_fullStr Counting Homomorphisms to Square-Free Graphs, Modulo 2
title_full_unstemmed Counting Homomorphisms to Square-Free Graphs, Modulo 2
title_short Counting Homomorphisms to Square-Free Graphs, Modulo 2
title_sort counting homomorphisms to square free graphs modulo 2
work_keys_str_mv AT gobela countinghomomorphismstosquarefreegraphsmodulo2
AT goldbergl countinghomomorphismstosquarefreegraphsmodulo2
AT richerbyd countinghomomorphismstosquarefreegraphsmodulo2